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Search for Missing Boy Halted; Giffords to Begin Rehab; Inside the Bunny Ranch; Electronic Pickpockets; Accusations of Abortion Horror
Aired January 22, 2011 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Take a look at this. Legal prostitution in the United States? We'll give you a rare tour of the bunny ranch near Las Vegas in the special investigations report.
If you want a Smartphone, be on the look out for these. As your phones and iPads get smarter, so do the ways they can steal your money and personal information? An expert will tell you how to protect yourself.
As football fans countdown of the Super Bowl, two guys who have played in four Super Bowls join me for their predictions of which teams will make it, Fran Tarkenton and Jamal Anderson.
Hello, I'm Martin Savidge at CNN Center in Atlanta. Those distinctive stories and then lots of news to get you caught up on. So let's get right to it.
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords will soon begin physical therapy after being shot through the brain two weeks ago. Giffords was transferred Friday from Tucson to Houston to begin rehabilitation. One doctor there says that she looks spectacular. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen says Giffords is showing more body strength and coordination than doctors expected. Her report is just ahead -- next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BONO, SINGER: Make me a channel of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring you along.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: U2's lead singer Bono was among those celebrating the life of Sgt. Shriver today in Maryland. Shriver, Tuesday, died at the age of 95 of complications from Alzheimer's. He was the first director of the Peace Corps, the 1972 Democratic nominee for vice president and with his wife, Eunice, the guiding force behind the Special Olympics.
Violent clashes today between protesters and police in North Africa. Demonstrators hit the streets in Algeria to call for Democratic reforms. Security forces pushed back enforcing a government ban on protests. Eleven people in the crowd and eight policemen were hurt according to reports. And this comes soon after protests in neighboring Tunisia led to the end of the president's 23- year-long rule there.
Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor is spending her first night at home in a week after doctors amputated most of her right leg. She left the hospital this afternoon returning to her Bel-Air mansion. She'll have to stay in bed for the next two months and needs round-the-clock care. Her mansion once home to Elvis Presley is on the market by the way for $28 million. Her husband says money is needed to pay her medical bills.
Some exciting home video out of Canada captures a tractor trailer out of control. Pay attention there on the left side of the screen. It happened near the New York State border. The truck was carrying more than 30 tons of sand when it broke through the garden rail. Nobody was hurt. Officers charged that trucker with careless driving.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST, COUNTDOWN: This is the last edition of "Countdown." Good night and good luck.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: And that's that for Keith Olbermann parting ways with MSNBC. Olbermann shocked viewers when he announced he is leaving the network and his show countdown after eight years. Neither he or the network is saying whether he quit or whether he was fired. Olbermann was MSNBC's biggest star, but he has had some very public disagreements with management over the years.
The hunt for a missing 4-year-old boy has been called off for now. Police have been scouring an irrigation canal in central California following reports a car was seen crashing into the water Wednesday. Juliani Cardenas was snatched from his grandmother's arms on Tuesday by a man police say is the ex-boyfriend of the mother. Reggie Kumar of affiliate KRON explains what police found today in the canal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REGGIE KUMAR, KRON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Stanislaus County investigators spent most of Saturday using sonar technology to search the Delta-Mendota canal for a 2003 silver Toyota corolla. That's the car investigators believe Jose Rodriguez was driving when he reportedly abducted 4-year-old Juliani Cardenas from his grandmother's home in Patterson on Tuesday.
While searching the water, they discovered the stolen red Nissan truck and pulled it from the canal. Since Wednesday, investigators have recovered five stolen vehicles and none of them matched the car the suspected kidnapper was driving. Sheriff Adam Christianson says they finally finished searching three large tunnels described as a self cleaning siphon deep under the water.
SHERIFF ADAM CHRISTIANSON, STANISLAU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: We were able to get into all three of the blocks in the self cleaning siphon searching from north to south so we were actually able to send the technology, the rover, for lack of a better term, through all three blocks here on to the south side and they are clear. There are no vehicles in those blocks.
KUMAR: Investigators say they still believe the farm worker's story about seeing a car matching the suspect's Toyota corolla drive into the canal with an adult and child inside.
CHRISTIANSON: This is our best credible lead. It's our -- and we believe that the witness truly saw what he shared with us. There isn't any reason to disbelieve him. He appears very trustworthy. He's a humble man who obviously was frightened by what he saw.
KUMAR: And investigators say Rodriguez hasn't use his cell phone or debit card since the abduction.
CHRISTIANSON: He's not making purchases with the debit card that he was normally using pre-abduction. We hold out hope that we're going to find Juliani alive. I mean, again, that has always been our goal.
KUMAR (on camera): Investigators have wrapped up their search of the canal for now. They plan to get some much needed rest and will resume searching south of the canal which is this direction in about 48 hours.
In Patterson, Reggie Kumar, KRON 4 News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: In North Carolina, an arrest warrant has been issued for Ann Pettway. She's suspected of kidnapping an infant in New York in 1987, raising her as her own daughter. Pettway's whereabouts were unknown tonight, but she's on probation and is prohibited from leaving North Carolina.
The girl is Carlina White, now an adult with a child of her own. She was reunited with her biological family this week. Carlina discovered her true identity during an Internet search when she found an old newspaper article and a baby picture about her disappearance.
By all accounts, Gabby Giffords is making remarkable progress after nearly being killed by would-be assassin two weeks ago. The congresswoman is now in a Houston hospital to begin rehabilitation.
CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen says Giffords already showing unexpected body strength and coordination.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: One of Gabrielle Giffords' doctors told us today that he's been quite surprised at how strong she is especially on her left hand side. She still can't stand up on her own. She still can't speak but look at something that she was able to do. Doctors said that they saw that her left leg was dangling over the side of the bed and they asked her to swing it up on to the bed, something like this, and she was able to do it. And they said that actually they found that that was a pleasant surprise. We spoke earlier with her Dr. Gerard Francisco.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. GERARD FRANCISCO, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, TIRR MEMORIAL HERMANN: She surprise us. She does not need as much assistance as we had anticipated. There are still people holding on to her as was described previously. But she's activating her muscles even more than what I had anticipated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: Dr. Francisco went on to say that her right side is not as strong as her left side. Now Giffords is still in the intensive care unit and here's why.
She's got a drain in her head. She has hydrocephalus which is fluid that's accumulated around the brain and they need to drain it out or else that swelling is going to put too much pressure on her brain. She still needs that drain and as long as that's in her head, she has to stay in intensive care. They're going to see early next week whether it can come out.
Back to you.
SAVIDGE: Elizabeth Cohen.
Now listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm from Seattle and I started hoeing when I was 16.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got started in the sex industry when I was 15.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've been in the game since I was 13.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Prostitutes share what it's like to sell their bodies for profit legally right here in the United States. You will hear it for yourself. It's a CNN Special Investigation ahead.
Plus, new 3D imaging that will make your eyes flutter. It's part of our "Videos Gone Viral."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: Prostitution is illegal in America with the exception of a few rural counties in Nevada.
CNN's Amber Lyon spent a year investigating the illegal trafficking of underage girls in America. It's a brutal trade affecting up to 300,000 American children. She went to America's most famous legal brothel the "Moonlite Bunny Ranch." The women who work there do so freely and they make good money. But as Amber discovered many are still haunted by their past.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DENNIS HOF, MOONLITE BUNCH RANCH: Hi, honey. How are you?
There's a lot of sexual trafficking going on in Las Vegas.
AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dennis Hof, he's been called America's pimp master general, but he considers himself a businessman.
HOF: Hey, I love it.
LYON: And what he does is legal.
HOF: I have a show on HBO called "Cat House."
LYON: Hof is the owner of the most famous legal brothel in America, the "Moonlite Bunny Ranch."
It's the setting for HBO's long-running reality series "Cat House."
HOF: People love the sex business, and I love being a part of it.
LYON: What he doesn't love are pimps.
(on camera): You're saying pimps to stop.
HOF: I think pimps are the worst leeches in the world. It's in Birmingham. It's in Charleston. It's everywhere. It's everywhere in America, there are pimps that are trying to grab the life of young girls and take them away from their families.
LYON: And what types of money are pimps pulling in?
HOF: Oh, tens of thousands of dollars a week.
LYON: A week?
HOF: Oh, yes, absolutely.
LYON: What is it with underage girls? Why do pimps make more money off them? Why are there so many underage girls?
HOF: They're easily manipulated. They're young. They're naive. But the price they pay is horrendous.
LYON (voice-over): Hof says he wants to set the record straight, let the public know that life in his legal brothel is a far cry from the lives of most American prostitutes. HOF: Ladies, this is Amber. She's here visiting, to spend some time with you girls. She wants to be with you all.
These kids want every buck or two, come in and make their money, and go back home and live their life.
Want me to walk you around and show you everything?
LYON (on camera): Yes.
HOF: There are just rooms down here and the girls decorate them like they want. We want people to be comfortable. LED plasma TVs.
LYON: Yes, it looks just like a regular bedroom. What is this?
HOF: This is a swing.
LYON: I don't quite know how this works.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's really easy. It's great.
LYON: Let's move on to the next room. There's boobs in the hallway. It's just boobs.
(voice-over): The women are in the safest and most profitable environment possible for a sex worker.
HOF: This is used one day a week for a couple of hours.
LYON: They're tested weekly for STDs. They have panic buttons in their room that they can hit if a client gets out of line, and they also keep half of their cash.
Some make six figure incomes.
(on camera): So, I know you guys are all of age now and you're in the business now legally. But how many of you were sex trafficked underage when you started in the business, can you raise your hand real high?
So, we have one two three.
(voice-over): We counted hands and asked the women to tell us their stories.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm from Seattle, and I started hoeing when I was 16.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got started in the sex industry when I was 15.
JAZZY, BUNNY RANCH GIRL: I've been in the game since I was 13.
LYON: All were effectively sex slaves controlled by pimps and all were sold online. JAZZY: Virginity wasn't an option where I came from. You know, it was taken from you. And so, when you -- when you get into the game or when you like have somebody tell you, you know, you can sleep with me for money and you've already lost your virginity, you're just like, why not? Like, you know, it's like, why not? You know, sex is not as sacred as it once was.
LYON: Amber Lyon, CNN, Carson City, Nevada.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: "SELLING THE GIRL NEXT DOOR," it airs tomorrow night 8:00 Eastern right here on CNN.
New technology is making it easier for thieves to steal your personal information. That report is ahead.
But first, Superintendent Andres Alonso is a lawyer brought in to fix Baltimore City's school system. In three years, he's achieved a record-high graduation rate in the city where more than 80 percent of the students are on free or reduced priced meals.
CNN education contributor Steve Perry sat down with Alonso to find out how he's turning around one of the most troubled school systems in the country.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR: What's a Harvard educated lawyer doing running Baltimore city schools?
ANDRES ALONSO, BALTIMORE CITY PUBLIC SCHOOL: Sense of insanity, maybe.
PERRY (voice-over): After working as deputy chancellor in New York City's Department of Education, Andres Alonso took on Baltimore's troubles in 2007. The impoverished and crime-ridden city had gone through six school superintendents in six years.
(on camera): You're a bit of a swashbuckler. You come down here, and you made it clear that things will never be the same.
ALONSO: I believe as we should all believe that every kid must learn, can learn, that you cannot use poverty as an excuse. That you have to do whatever is necessary to make sure that our kids learn.
PERRY: Seventy-five percent of your principals are new?
ALONSO: That is correct. There are so many people in schools that are invested and want to do what's right. We are the examples. I mean, our teachers, they approved the contract where they will no longer get paid every year on the basis of seniority. They will get paid every year on the basis of their ability to prove their effectiveness.
PERRY (voice-over): The details of the evaluation system are still being worked out, but it will be tied to student testing. Alonso also closed failing schools, let's students choose their schools, and gave principals full control over the school's budgets.
KAREN WEBBER-NDOUR, PRINCIPAL, NATL. ACADEMY FOUNDATION H.S.: In order to retain the best teachers in the classroom you have to give them respect and the tools they need to do their job. And so, by Dr. Alonso pushing the resources to me as a principal, I can push them down to the teachers so that they can get into the classrooms.
PERRY (on camera): Would you send your daughter to your school?
WEBBER-NDOUR: Absolutely. That's the measure.
PERRY: Steve Perry, Baltimore.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: Several viral videos caught our attention this week.
First off, the future of 3D imaging. You can see small devices attached to his temples. The eyes flutter wildly. And then listen to his description.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A shape that feels really real. I couldn't touch it. The quality is really amazing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: We don't think movie audience will really go for it, but it's definitely one of the stranger videos that we have received this week.
And ever wonder what makes normally sane people go ice fishing? Well, here's one big reason.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
He's kicking. This thing is -- he's in your -- oh my goodness, dude! Holy buckets! Oh, this thing is log! Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Dude!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Jeremy Rehberg (ph) and Jason Graettinger (ph) are two diehard ice fishermen in Wisconsin. Their adventures appear on the Web site JigheadsTV.com. They caught this whopper on Lake Superior. As you can see, it's almost too big to fit through the ice hole. They didn't keep it though. After documenting the fish, they let it go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at that fish! (END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: I need to warn you this next video is a little bit disturbing to watch. We are not recommending anyone try this. But in some parts of the world, this unusual practice is catching on. The video is not fake. That is a real infant. There's an article about it in "Time" magazine. The practice is called baby yoga. Advocates believe it makes newborns confident and fearless.
This week Starbucks announced the new app enabling you to pay by Smartphone. It is part of the trend of using technology to make it easier for us to use our credit cards and our cash. But as the technology gets smarter, so do the criminals. And they are now able to victimize you literally through the air.
Ted Chernecki from our Canadian affiliate Global Network News explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED CHERNECKI, GLOBAL NETWORK NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Watch a man sit down next to a woman and without touching her successfully steal her key information from her credit card.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's your visa number.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How did you do that?
CHERNECKI: He works for Identity Stronghold, a company specializing in electronic fraud protection. Look for this symbol on your credit card. If you have it, your card is sending out a radio frequency identification signal. It is design so you can simply bring your card close to an object and purchase it without swiping a card. But thieves have figured out how to exploit that. Here again. A pass glance and he's got the info.
DREW GRAINGER, ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE: Simple as this chip right here that's been added to once functioning pin pad.
CHERNECKI: Police are seeing a whole new level of cyber crime. When you are not looking, thieves swap a normal pin pad with an identical looking one, but one that's been customize and inside you find one extra small computer chip that takes all that key information and via Bluetooth broadcasts it to a distance of up to 30 feet. Increasingly, thieves are going wireless.
GRAINGER: There is a rogue fraudster in the parking lot that monitoring on a laptop live what activity is going on this pin pad including your pin number and all of your account information.
CHERNECKI: And not only they are monitoring it, they can actually start printing the cards right away.
GRAINGER: Absolutely. And all that data that comes from this piece of equipment here is quickly captured on to some magnetic strip like this. You simply write what the pin number is on the card and you also have the new bank card.
CHERNECKI: Police are being proactive warning merchants of how fast crime tactics are evolving.
AMAR GILL, ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE: Just to provide you with some information on preventing yourself, your business being a target.
ALAINA CLOKE, CRUSH CLOTHING: We've got a Swarovski crystallized debit machine so it is interesting because, you know, like, a lot of people say if they put a little sticker on it and stuff, it is easy to replicate. You know you can go out and buy a sticker and stick it on there and you never know the difference. This is pretty hard to replicate.
CHERNECKI: There are self-powered card skimmers that thieves place over top of the bank's card slot. Your card is taken into the machine, you still do your transactions so everything looks normal.
GRAINGER: But as the card slips back through after the transaction is made, all that data that's captured on this little device right here including your pin number.
CHERNECKI: You can get lead-lined sleeves and wallets to block skimmers from picking up your new RFID-enabled credit cards, but ultimately consumers just have to stay on top of what's going on and protect sensitive financial information like never before.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: So how do you prevent this from happening to you? Well, we'll have the cyber security expert give us some tips later on in the show.
Also, a disturbing story of an abortion doctor charged with murdering babies during botched abortions. Live report from Philadelphia is coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: Let's check some of the top stories. It's still very early, but it's still worth noting. Mitt Romney is the winner of today's New Hampshire Republican Party straw poll. He got 35 percent of the vote. He surveyed the state party members. Congressman Ron Paul was second with 11 percent. Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was third with 8 percent. Sarah Palin was fourth with 7 percent. It was still more than a year away from New Hampshire's presidential primary.
President Obama is giving his political supporters a preview of Tuesday's State of the Union address in an e-mail message recorded last night. Mr. Obama says the main topics of Tuesday's address will be creating jobs, growing the economy and making sure the U.S. remains competitive. He also says that "The past two years had been as tough as anything we have gone through since the Great Depression." That was a quote. New developments from Italy in the Amanda Knox case. Two forensic experts took an oath to remain objective today as they prepare to retest some of the evidence used to convict Knox and her boyfriend of the sexual assault and murder of her British roommate. The experts will perform new DNA tests on a knife, the alleged murder weapon, and a clasp from the victim's bra which was not collected by police until six weeks after the murder.
A warning, this next segment involves graphic and disturbing details. A grand jury report released this week against a Philadelphia doctor rivals any serial killer paperback. Prosecutors say this brick building was a true house of horror and torture.
With several decades' worth of botched abortions, baby killing took place. The Philly D.A. charged Dr. Kermit Gosnell with eight counts of murder. Gosnell has not responded to the accusations, but last year when he lost his medical license the father of seven gave a two-hour interview with David Gambacorta, crime reporter for "The Philadelphia Daily News."
David joins us now from Philadelphia. And David, when you spoke to the doctor, this is really something I found very amazing. Dr. Gosnell portrayed himself as, quote, a positive force in the community. What in the world did he mean?
DAVID GAMBACORTA, CRIME REPORTER, PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS: Well, Marty, the doctor was from West Philadelphia where his clinic is based, and he very much believed that he was giving back to a community that was underserved. As he told it to me, he helped people who had never really before had any advocates and in his mind he was providing care that he would want his daughter to have.
SAVIDGE: So somehow he saw himself in this community as offering a public service, he was doing good within the neighborhood, so to speak?
GAMBACORTA: That's right, yes. He often spoke to me anyway of treating patients who could not afford to pay for their care and of being there for people who had nowhere else to go. In his mind, he was a good force.
SAVIDGE: Just how many victims are there?
GAMBACORTA: There have been dozens and dozens of women who have sued Dr. Gosnell over the last three decades for botched abortions and botched doesn't really do justice. Some of the injuries these women have suffered, we can't even really comprehend. And the grand jury this week as we reported on Philly.com charged that Dr. Gosnell has probably murdered hundreds of babies over the last few decades.
SAVIDGE: And I presume in your interview when you spoke to him for two hours, you confronted him with these accusations.
GAMBACORTA: Yes, I did, Martin. And Dr. Gosnell put it to me that he had tried his best, that he believed the negative headlines simply weren't offering a fair representation of what had gone on in his practice. And we ended our interview by him telling me that he believed he would one day be vindicated. Although, obviously, from what we learned this week, I don't think that will ever be the case.
SAVIDGE: We want to show you a full screen of what we have which we should say that on this Thursday his former attorney, William Brennan said, quote, "No one expected these charges. There should be no rush to judgment no matter how salacious they are."
Some of the salacious details involve the condition of the facility. And tell us what you know about that, David.
GAMBACORTA: Well, when the raid was first conducted on Dr. Gosnell's clinic last February, investigators initially thought they were breaking up a pill mill, a place where illegal prescriptions were being written out constantly.
What they found, I think, defied belief. There were countless amounts of fetus remains that were shoved in refrigerators and in bags and in boxes all over his practice. The rooms where the actual abortions were performed, the floors were coated in blood and many of the women who had the abortions were left to recover on blood-stained couches and recliners while they themselves were usually semiconscious and heavily medicated.
HOST: Where was the state in all of this? I mean, should there not have been some of investigation if there is a medical facility here licensing, whatever, that has to be looked up?
GAMBACORTA: Absolutely. I mean, one of the - one of the major points that the grand jury made was that under Pennsylvania law, you cannot have an abortion clinic that does not have a board-certified OB-GYN. Dr. Gosnell was not a board-certified OB-GYN, and there was nobody at his practice that held that title. And the state was made aware over the decades of the lawsuits that had been filed against him.
There was -- there were ample opportunities. I think it's fair to say for the state to have stepped in and to have done something to stop him from continuing these atrocities. But for reasons that I think will probably continue to be explained over the coming years no action was ever really taken.
HOST: We've been reporting to David Gambacorta. He's a reporter with the "Philadelphia Daily News." Thanks very much for talking with us.
GAMBACORTA: Thank you, Marty. Appreciate it.
HOST: One of the Dr. Gosnell's former patients will talk to us exclusively and she says that she barely survived what Gosnell did to her. You'll hear it for yourself, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: Tonight, a CNN exclusive. A former patient of a Dr. Kermit Gosnell. She's telling her story publicly for the first time. Gosnell is accused of botching abortions for more than 20 years in Philadelphia, destroying viable fetuses and hurting and even killing patients. LaToya Ransome says that she is one of his victims.
LaToya, first of all, let me say thank you very much for joining us. And we understand that you had your abortion in 2007. And now, four years later, Dr. Gosnell is getting charged with murder. So, I was wondering what was your reaction when you heard the news of his arrest this week?
LATOYA RANSOME, FORMER PATIENT OF ACCUSED DOCTOR: Well, actually, I was finally, you know, happy that somebody did something about his cruel actions.
SAVIDGE: And when you hear of how the doctor thought he was doing good in the neighborhood, when you hear those kind of quotes coming from the doctor, how does that make you feel?
RANSOME: It makes me feel -- it makes me believe that he's crazy and he's careless. He have no type of, you know -- no type of feelings of what he is doing to these women and babies. So when I hear that he say certain things out his mouth, it makes me, you know, makes me wonder what do he wonder and what do he believe or do he believe that everything he's doing is OK when it's not.
SAVIDGE: And I know that this is extremely difficult for you to talk about so, again, thank you for sharing this. What happened to you?
RANSOME: Well, on July 29th of 2007, I had an abortion. By August 31st, 2007, I had open-heart surgery. October the 1st of 2007, I was disabled, meaning, I couldn't do nothing for myself, take care of my son. You know, take care of myself, feed myself, clothing myself. None of that.
SAVIDGE: All of this is because...
RANSOME: Like physically.
SAVIDGE: ...of the treatment that you had allegedly with the doctor?
RANSOME: Yes.
SAVIDGE: And that this brought about the heart condition you talk about and that this brought about the condition where you were totally unable to even care for yourself?
RANSOME: Yes.
SAVIDGE: And this was brought on how? Was it something that he used or the way he treated you?
RANSOME: It was the utensils that he used, you know, to do the abortion. It wasn't sterilized. So it caused me to get an infection called endocarditis. SAVIDGE: How is it that you came to the doctor in the first place? I mean, how did you know of him? How did you learn about him? And when you went to him, had you heard any of the bad things that we hear now?
RANSOME: No, I didn't -- I didn't hear any of the things that's going on now around that time. And how did I hear about him? A friend of mine, you know, had previously went there to, you know, do whatever it is that she did.
So that's how I heard about him, but I had to go through a two- day procedure. So the first day I was there, I did ask him to change his gloves because he had on gloves to, you know, go to start to operate on me, but he left out the room. And then came back in the room and tried to use the same gloves that he had on to perform whatever he was about to do. So I asked him to change his gloves which he did.
SAVIDGE: And now, what do you think should happen to him?
RANSOME: Well, to be truthfully honest, I don't believe that they should give him the death penalty because, I believe, that that's too easy. I believe that they should sent him -- sent him -- sentence him to life in jail, double times, and make him suffer, you know.
I don't believe giving him the death penalty is a good idea because that's too easy for him. What about all the people and the babies he hurt and had to go through pain? What about the woman that can't have anymore babies because of this? And what about the woman that died and her family got to suffer and go through everything that, you know, they're going through because of this one doctor?
And them giving him the death penalty, I believe, that's too easy for him. So I believe he should be sentenced in jail two lifetimes and if they could give him more than that, then do that. But I don't believe that he should be sentenced to the death penalty.
SAVIDGE: LaToya Ransome, you're very courageous for talking to us tonight and we appreciate with great regard how you have come forward and spoken on what must be a very, very difficult time. Thank you very much.
RANSOME: Yes.
SAVIDGE: We will now take a break.
RANSOME: You're welcome.
SAVIDGE: We'll take a break and be back with more after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: You know, earlier, we showed you how sophisticated cyber criminals are getting and that they're using RFID. That's the radio signal that you use to make a purchase by waving your credit card at a specific spot. But thieves are learning to pick up the signal and getting your credit card info literally through the air.
Cyber security expert Gregory Evans is here to offer his advice on how to avoid becoming a victim.
And Gregory, first of all, let me ask you. Let's start with the basics. RFID, what exactly is that?
GREGORY EVANS, CEO, LIGATT SECURITY: RFID is like a miniature chip that puts off this signal. It's like an identification chip. You're putting it -- they're putting them on packages now. So like right now you see a bar code. Now you have an RFID code that would be on there as well.
SAVIDGE: So they're very, very small.
EVANS: Very small.
SAVIDGE: And cheap and easy to place.
EVANS: Yes. And you can find them on credit cards now as well, so.
SAVIDGE: And this is where we start to run into the problems as we saw. What happens?
EVANS: Well, what happens is anything that's transmitted in the air like the information on RFID or even like your cell phones, anything that's in the air can be captured, OK. And if someone can capture it, then that means that they can read it.
Now, it depends on the encryption. That's the level. That's one of the biggest things that we have to be worried about as consumers using these. They're being forced upon us. Like for instance, you're not asking for the credit card to come with an RFID, but credit card companies are actually putting RFID on the cards now.
SAVIDGE: What do they want now? What do they care?
EVANS: Well, because it makes it a lot easier, and a lot of the merchants, it's more of convenience. Even though we don't need that, they're adding that on there.
SAVIDGE: In other words, it's easier for us to use there but we would use and spend all their money or they're money in credit.
EVANS: Exactly. Just imagine if you walked, if you had it in your purse or your wallet and you walked into a grocery store and all the -- everything in your basket had an RFID chip and you had your credit card in your pocket had RFID, you just walk right through, it will automatically scan everything. There's no putting it up on the baskets and scanning each individual thing anymore and then you'll pay. You just keeping walking straight out the door.
SAVIDGE: And once they have the information, then they essentially have your credit card.
EVANS: That is correct.
EVANS: OK. So, how do I protect myself? What do we do?
EVANS: Well, one, if possible, tell your credit card company you don't want to RFID on your card.
SAVIDGE: Can you do that? I mean, is that possible?
EVANS: Well, I don't see why not because personally I wouldn't want an RFID, but that's the way we're going these days. Technology has been around. Like I mentioned during the break, my dog has an RFID in his ear. So as the kennel breeder (ph) picked him up, they can scan it and find out who actually owns this dog.
SAVIDGE: Right. Well, say that the credit card company doesn't give me that option.
EVANS: Right.
SAVIDGE: Like I'm stuck with the card that is transmitting apparently.
EVANS: Right.
SAVIDGE: Is there any way to shield it, to prevent...
EVANS: Well, yes, there are. You got wallets out there that you can actually keep your credit card with the RFID in your wallet that will shield it from sending out that signal. That way, you don't have to worry about someone like sitting right next to you and just grabbing it. The only time it would transmit is when you pull it out and you set it next to, you know, an RFID reader.
SAVIDGE: OK. So I should look for a wallet like that. What do you think the future is of this RFID? I mean, is it passing a fad or do you think it's here forever?
EVANS: It's here forever and it is going to get worse. And at some point, and I do believe -- this is just my personal opinion -- at some point, we're all going to have RFIDs. It might be even in our fingers where they require it with everything on it. A driver's license will be on the RFID chip. Our credit card number. All our information will be on this one chip. And the only thing you have is a bunch of scanners that can read it.
SAVIDGE: Wow, that's a whole new world out there.
EVANS: It's a whole new world. And it's a scary world at that.
SAVIDGE: Gregory Evans, thank you very much. We appreciate your insight.
EVANS: Thank you. Appreciate it.
SAVIDGE: Countdown to the Super Bowl. What are your predictions? You'll hear from NFL greats, Fran Tarkenton and Jamal Anderson. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: Folks in Boston woke this morning to bitterly cold temperatures, making it especially tough for the city's 2,000 homeless women. This week's CNN hero gives these women something they can count on -- quality health care right in the shelters for free. She is Dr. Roseanna Means and she's been doing this for 11 years.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. ROSEANNA MEANS, MEDICAL MARVEL: You OK?
Every week, I talk to women who are sleeping outside.
It's only 17 degrees out so I didn't want you to get frozen.
There's so much pain and suffering right on the fringes of our perspective.
Do you need some help, hon?
In Boston, despite all the medical resources for the homeless population, I was seeing very few of the women using the services.
For women who are poor, homeless, or battered, to deal with a system of health care becomes overwhelming. They don't have an address. They don't have a phone. There are lots of emotional issues, psychiatric issues. I just didn't like the idea that they were falling through the cracks.
I'm Dr. Rosanna Means and I bring free, high quality medical care to women and children in the shelters of Boston.
Good morning!
The women come into the shelters to get warm and to feel safe and we're there.
Come on in.
There is no registration. We're not charging anything. If they want to come see us, we will use that moment to try to build a relationship.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my safety net right here.
MEANS: The women learn to trust us as ambassadors of the health care system. Over time, we can teach them how to use the system as it was intended and eventually they do move forward.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because I knew she really cared, I started wanting to take care of myself.
MEANS: I love these women no matter what.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're doing a great job.
MEANS: And it starts to get taken inside that if I matter to somebody else, maybe I matter to myself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: The Super Bowl is just two weeks away. Green Bay plays at Chicago tomorrow and the New York Jets will play the Steelers in Pittsburgh. Winners will, of course, meet in the big game in Dallas.
Earlier, I talked about tomorrow's games and that big game with two men who have been there -- Hall of Fame Quarterback Fran Tarkenton and former Pro Bowl Running Back Jamal Anderson. And we talked about the match-ups, their Super Bowl picks and the Steelers' defense.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRAN TARKENTON, NFL HALL OF FAME QUARTERBACK: Dick LeBeau will play defense,. This is the guy that invented the zone blitz, the coordinator for the Steelers. He'll have blitzes that Mark Sanchez has never seen. And Polamalu will be a factor in the game, and it's going to be hard to score for him. It's going to be hard to get -- if you don't get a field in this game, there's not going to be many points. I think the Steelers have a really good edge in this game.
SAVIDGE: Well, as a quarterback, I mean, do you think that Roethlisberger has sort of come back here because of what happened to him at the beginning of the season that motivated him?
TARKENTON: No, no. Football players play football. All the things around us are what they are. He came back. He's a football player. He's -- you know, he's quarterback to a world championship team, two Super Bowl teams. Pittsburgh always has great talent. They have a great organization. We got three of the oldest franchises of football. Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Chicago.
SAVIDGE: Right. It's classic.
TARKENTON: It's classic. Pittsburgh will be really tough and Sanchez is still a work in progress.
SAVIDGE: Right.
TARKENTON: And to go and play in this game is a real challenge. He's held up amazingly well, but this is a different team than New England. New England had no running game. New England had not the strong physical defense that he's going to see tomorrow. Pittsburgh will be tough.
SAVIDGE: I don't want to -- I don't want to waste this opportunity because we're running out of time and I want to get your predictions. What do you think of the outcome of these?
JAMAL ANDERSON, FORMER PRO BOWL RUNNING BACK: Well, I agree with what he said. The biggest key for the Jets and the Steelers game is Troy Polamalu was not in this game. But I really wanted to ask because everybody is asking me this week. If Ben wins a third ring, if Ben gets past the Jets this week, where is his legacy?
TARKENTON: Well, you know, I always feel that it's a team game, is it not?
ANDERSON: Right.
TARKENTON: Teams win, individuals don't. And the team wins. I think -- I think Roethlisberger is a big game player. He's an awkward guy. He is -- we've never seen a quarterback quite like him. He's very effective. Got a few good players on that team, too. And I think Pittsburgh will win and I think Green Bay will win.
SAVIDGE: OK. So, that's the Super Bowl...
ANDERSON: You know, Martin, as a fan, for some reason, I'm like a -- what the Packers have done on the road and what the Jets have done on the road, both of those teams are strong. And you can go on the road and win both games the way these two teams have done. I feel pretty good about both of them coming into it, but I would like to see the Bears and the Steelers, but we'll see.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: A lot of fun talking to those two. We'll get you caught up on our top stories right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: Now final check of our top stories.
The desperate search in central California for a 4-year-old boy has been suspended. 48 hours. Police say 27-year-old Jose Esteban Rodriguez grabbed his ex-girlfriend's son Juliani Cardinias -- Cardenas, rather. Rodriguez grabbed him on Tuesday. He then fled with the boy in a silver Toyota Corolla. The boy's mother says that she doesn't believe Rodriguez will hurt him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TABITHA CARDENAS, MISSING BOY'S MOTHER: He needs to come home. He doesn't need to be with you. He's not even your son, Jose. You need to get a grip on reality, you know. Take off. Leave Juliani somewhere. You take off. I don't care where you go. Just give me my son back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: The search has been focused on an irrigation canal where a farm worker says that he saw a vehicle crashed into the water Wednesday.
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords will soon begin physical therapy right after being shot to the brain two weeks ago. Giffords was transferred Friday from Tucson to Houston to begin rehabilitation. One doctor there says that she looks spectacular. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen says that Giffords is showing more body strength and coordination than doctors expected.
President Obama is giving his political supporters a preview of Tuesday's State of the Union address in a mail message that is e-mail message recorded last night. Mr. Obama says the main topics of Tuesday's address will be creating jobs, growing the economy and making sure the U.S. remains competitive. He also says the past two years have been as tough as anything we have gone through since the Great Depression. That's a quote.
It's not scientific, but it measures name recognition, if nothing else. Mitt Romney won today's New Hampshire Republican Party straw poll for president. He received 35 percent of the vote in a survey of state party members. Congressman Ron Paul, the second, with 11 percent. Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was third with 8 percent. Sarah Palin was fourth with 7 percent. It is still more than a year away from New Hampshire's presidential primary.
And next -- violent clashes today between protesters and police in North Africa. Demonstrators hit the streets in Algeria to call for democratic reforms. Security forces pushed back, enforcing a government ban on protests. Eleven people in the crowd and eight policemen were hurt in that action according to reports. And this comes soon after protests in neighboring Tunisia led to the end of that president's 23-year-long rule there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BONO, SINGER: Make me a channel of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring you along.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: U2's lead singer Bono was among those celebrating the life of Sargent Shriver today in Maryland. Shriver died Tuesday at the age of 95 of complications from Alzheimer's. He was the first director of the Peace Corps, the 1972 nominee Democratic nominee for vice president and, with his wife Eunice, the guiding force behind the Special Olympics.
I'm Martin Savidge in Atlanta. Don Lemon will be back here tomorrow night at 6, 7 and 10 Eastern.
You can look for me on Facebook and Twitter.
Up next, CNN Presents Special "PRESUMED GUILTY: MURDER IN WEST MEMPHIS."
